These teachings relate generally to electrical connectors, and are particularly relevant to DC connectors of portable electronic devices such as mobile telephones and terminals, electronic organizers, music players, cameras, camcorders and portable computers for charging the batteries of those devices.
Portable electronic devices such as those mentioned above have continued to be reduced in size, putting a premium on the physical space within the devices themselves. However, manufacturers generally wish to retain compatibility of accessories (chargers, headsets, etc.) among numerous product models. This allows the same type of accessories to operate with newer more compact models as well as existing products already in use, and it also reduces the need for numerous models of accessories that are each compatible with only select models of a device. This desire for compatibility imposes the need to continue using jacks/electrical connectors that interface with accessories in newer, typically smaller device models that have been used in older models. The continuing trend toward smaller device models imposes a need for architectural flexibility in mounting and arranging those jacks.
Currently, jacks are typically a single-body or unitary design wherein the jack is mounted to a printed wiring or circuit board (PWB) within the device. Leads extend from within a cavity defined by the unitary jack, where a mating complementary plug may be received, through the jack housing. A portion of each lead extends beyond the jack housing, which is then soldered or otherwise fixedly connected to the PWB to complete electrical connectivity with the overall device. Many of the existing jack designs, especially power jacks for re-charging batteries that supply portable power the subject devices, are mounted to a major surface of the PWB. The major surfaces are the two opposed surfaces defining the greatest surface area of the PWB. This design complicates further size reductions of portable electronic devices for two reasons. First, their mounting position above or below the PWB limits placement of the jack within the device to locations where the housing spans the z direction sufficiently. In the convention of the industry, the z direction is normal to the two parallel planes defined by the major surfaces of the PWB and is graphically depicted at FIG. 1. Second, their unitary design imposes high cost in redesigning where the jack may be located along the PWB. Because the leads of the jack are fixed, even small changes to its location along a PWB require redesign of the PWB wiring architecture, and commensurate retooling for manufacture of the new device. These redesign inefficiencies remain even for currently existing jacks that are mounted through or along an edge of the PWB rather than above or below it.
What is needed in the art is a jack that retains compatibility with existing accessories but that allows more flexibility in physically locating and mounting the jack on a PWB or substrate without adding the current redesign inefficiencies. Preferably, such a jack would allow at least minor variations in placement relative to a PWB without the need to reconfigure the PWB itself. Ideally, the jack would also be mountable through a plane defined by a major surface of the PWB, rather than directly on one of those surfaces, to minimize extension in the z-direction.
The foregoing and other problems are overcome, and other advantages are realized, in accordance with the presently preferred embodiments of these teachings.
In accordance with the present invention, an electrical connector for a portable electronic device comprises a frame that defines an exterior surface and an electrically conductive first strip. The first strip is disposed on at least a portion of the exterior surface of the frame. The transition element comprises an electrically conductive first spring contactor, wherein the first spring contactor defines a stationary segment for contact with a substrate and an opposed free segment biased for contact with the first strip.
The present invention also includes a method of connecting an electrical connector to a PWB. The method comprises the steps of first providing a PWB; then fixedly attaching a transition element of the electrical connector to the PWB; and then fixedly attaching a frame of the electrical connector to a substrate so that a strip disposed on at least a portion of an exterior surface of the frame is in contact with a biased free end of the transition element. The substrate to which the frame is attached may or may not be the PWB to which the transition element is attached.